SCRAWL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does scrawl mean? 

• SCRAWL (noun)
  The noun SCRAWL has 1 sense:

1. poor handwriting

  Familiarity information: SCRAWL used as a noun is very rare.

• SCRAWL (verb)
  The verb SCRAWL has 1 sense:

1. write carelessly

  Familiarity information: SCRAWL used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SCRAWL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Poor handwriting

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

cacography; scratch; scrawl; scribble

Hypernyms ("scrawl" is a kind of...):

hand; handwriting; script (something written by hand)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "scrawl"):

chicken scratch (cramped or illegible handwriting)

squiggle (an illegible scrawl)

Derivation:

scrawl (write carelessly)

• SCRAWL (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they scrawl    ... he / she / it scrawls   
Past simple: scrawled   
Past participle: scrawled   
-ing form: scrawling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Write carelessly

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Synonyms:

scrawl; scribble

Hypernyms (to "scrawl" is one way to...):

write (mark or trace on a surface)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

scrawl (poor handwriting)

scrawler (a writer whose handwriting is careless and hard to read)

 Context examples 

Neither Lady Russell nor Mr Elliot could admire the letter; but it did all that was wanted, in bringing three lines of scrawl from the Dowager Viscountess.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

He had picked from a drawer a little tarnished cylinder, and, undoing the tape, he handed me a short note scrawled upon a half-sheet of slate-grey paper.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was terrific, impossible; and yet there it was, scrawled in black ink across the sheets of paper.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Three days later a message was left scrawled upon paper, and placed under a pebble upon the sundial.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There was no maker’s name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials “H. B.” were scrawled upon one side.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“But I am still here, all here,” the hand scrawled more slowly and painfully than ever.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

When I called on Wednesday there was a letter with the West Kensington postmark upon it, and my name scrawled across the envelope in a handwriting which looked like a barbed-wire railing.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Hence the ape-like tricks that he would play me, scrawling in my own hand blasphemies on the pages of my books, burning the letters and destroying the portrait of my father; and indeed, had it not been for his fear of death, he would long ago have ruined himself in order to involve me in the ruin.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

It was he who invented that writing, which would pass as a child’s scrawl unless you just happened to have the key to it.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Look at this—a sheet from a note-book, with ‘For God’s sake come at once—P.T.,’ scrawled upon it in pencil.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)